NPR Illinois considers maintaining a community advisory board to be a best practice. The NPR Illinois Community Advisory Board (CAB) meets regularly to offer perspective to the management team and, as directed by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) Community Service Grant (CSG) has:

The right to review the station's programming goals

The right to review the service provided by the station

The right to review significant policy decisions rendered by the station

The obligation to advise the station's governing body of whether the station's programming and other significant policies are meeting the specialized educational and cultural needs of the communities served by the station, and to make recommendations that the CAB deems appropriate to meet such needs (47 U.S.C. § 396(k)(8))

The NPR Illinois Community Advisory Board (CAB) met in Chicago and connected by videoconference to Springfield. The primary purposes of the meeting were to welcome new advisory board members who begin their new terms on July 1, 2018 and to provide input about whether NPR Illinois’ programming and policies meet the specialized educational and cultural needs of the community it serves.